The Shadow Thieves

This is apparently the first volume in the Cronus chronicles (not to be confused with The Kronos chronicles which is also currently underway and makes me wish people communicated more about these things) and also not to be confused with the Percy Jackson series, which like this series uses the "what if Greek myths were real?" tagline. This is not to say that Miss Anne Ursu is unoriginal -- no, indeed, I quite liked her book. It's not a first person narrative, but is written with that cadence and syntax typical of the American teenager's internal monologue. For that reason, some people will not be able to stand reading it, but as it sounds exactly how I thought when I was 13, I find it laugh-out-loud funny. That said, this is a darker show more picture of the Olympians than we find with Percy Jackson, and a more mundane picture too. The heroine (it's a girl this time, though she has a co-hero -- her cousin -- who is a boy so I'm not sure it totally counts girl-power-wise) is a human, with no divine blood and no special skills. She does have a few things going for her though, including a pretty spiffy cat (it's just a cat, and yet not, but I can't tell you more because it would give it away -- but don't worry, you'll figure it out pretty quickly) and she lives in Minnesota, which seems an odd fit for a story involving the Greek gods, but it works, and I like it. In fact, I really liked this whole book. It's very me. I kind of wish I had written it, but I am not that good. So, you know, read it. :) show less

At first I fell in love with the type of voicing this story had, with its intense sarcasm and all, but it grew a little old when the story didn't have more to offer. In the really intense, dark parts, the humor could have been more well-crafted. It brought me right out of the tension, and so later I had to think "Oh yeah, this is a scary part, I forgot!" and had to place myself back in, which shouldn't be.

The villain was also a bit cliche, and I would've liked more motive on his part. And character. Sure, he's a bad guy who acts like a gentleman, gets angry at all the right times, but he's just another cardboard villain.

There were some good scenes, though, and I did like the mystery of everyone getting sick in the beginning (although I show more was a little angry when the reason was just told to us, instead of letting the audience try and figure it out for themselves.

Anyway, a decent book. I can understand why some people would love the action and the voice, but it didn't really do it for me. show less

Can't rate objectively. There's just something about her writing style, her voice, that enraptures me. I'll try to read anything by her. For example, I normally don't like adventure fantasy, nor do I have any interest in the Greek myths, and I'm not particularly fond of epic series. But after devouring this I'm excited to read the next two.

Now, others may think her prose almost purple, others may find her adventures to have too many extra descriptions or too much character development, whatever, I don't know. All I can suggest for the curious is to start with [b:Breadcrumbs|10637959|Breadcrumbs|Anne Ursu|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1300592738s/10637959.jpg|15546655] or maybe [b:The Real Boy|17349055|The Real Boy|Anne show more Ursu|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1363807793s/17349055.jpg|24034540].

"Eight of the girls in her class, whose names all began with A, had left for the summer as brunettes and come back as blondes. They paraded through the hallways like an eerie airhead cult, and just as their hair had lightened, they seemed to have faded a little--they had lost form, character, color, as if their very atoms had spread out and could barely be distinguished from the walls around them."

"At the sight of the packages P... let out what can only be called a squeal--as if he were a young girl on Christmas morning rushing to the tree to find a golden-haired puppy while a hush of snow fell over the world." show less

A fourth-grader at school had been telling me that I needed to read this, and since our library copy tends to stay checked out, she finally brought me her personal copy from home. When a student is so adamant that you read a book that she hands over her own paperback copy, you read it! And I'm so glad I did. Definitely a winner for the kids who enjoy Percy Jackson's adventures. I actually liked it a little more than Riordan's series-- maybe because I'm a little burnt out on Percy and his gang; maybe because Anne Ursu writes with a dry humor and a touch of snarkiness that I really enjoyed. So Gabby, thank you for your persistence!

I have no idea why I expected this to be bland and uninteresting, and I apologize to the author for my supposition. Because it was engrossing, exciting, and funny. I enjoyed the characters a lot (particularly the surly Charlotte), and while there were a few little details that I called early on (the cat, for one), it wasn’t the predictable book I’d expected it to be. I’m curious about and eager for the sequel (due out in July, according to Amazon).

I feel like this book could use a higher average rating :P
I thought this book was pretty good; one of the things I liked about it (which actually seems to be a turn off for some of the other reviewers) was the slightly Lemony Snicket-esque narrator. Reading some of the reviews, I rather thought it was going to be dreary, tedious, and an obvious ripoff of Percy Jackson (And yes, I now know that this book was published too soon after Percy Jackson to be a ripoff, so no need to correct me.) So the poor thing was the last in its library book batch to be read, and honestly I think it was the best. The underworld was very underworldly, but made amusing by the less underworldly way Hades had of managing it, along with the slightly ridiculous show more figure of Hades himself. Charlotte was grumpy, antisocial, a bit cowardly, and fine with it; Zee was every ounce the gentlemanly, brave, heroic, and effortlessly popular British Boy. The story, as stories go, wasn't ridiculously predictable, or ridiculously complicated. My favorite part was the very end where it turns out that SPOILERS' SPOILERS SPOILERS to SPOILERS and turned out to be SPOILERS.
I don't know about anyone else, but I'm definitely reading the rest if the series. :) show less

Charlotte Mielswetski (Meals. Wet. Ski.) is a very plucky, sympathetic young lady who has to save the world from Philenecron, a character from the Greek Underworld who is trying to steal children's shadows to make an army. Charlotte and her cousin Zee have to stop them with brains, courage, and a little help from their friends.